Cops said that when they initially entered Lindsey Powell’s flat, they were confronted by a terrible stench and a scene that almost caused one of the officers to collapse. Powell is accused of abandoning her four children, aged 11, 6, 4, and 3, to live in filth and degradation as the distraught mother fled to New York.
Gregory Webster, a Vernon police officer, said in Powell’s Nov. 8 arrest report—which the local CBS affiliate WFSB made public online this week—that it was hard to stand. Webster claimed that the smell coming from the flat was burning his nostrils and that there were fly swarms, trash heaps, and human and cat waste all over the place.
According to Webster, the apartment’s living conditions were appalling. Trash, toys, grime, and discarded food and clothing were all over the living room floor. It was challenging to go across the living room without tripping over anything or spilling bodily fluids. There was crusty or rotten old food all over the flat, and I saw human and animal waste on the floor near the kitchen sink.
Powell’s arrest report claims that while traveling to upstate New York, she left her children in the sour apartment for at least eight hours. According to the report, she told authorities that she left them because she was depressed and overwhelmed.
According to a friend, she had been mentioning driving her car off a cliff in suicidal remarks. According to the arrest report, Powell’s aunt told police that she allegedly told her that day that she was going to kill herself by eating a bottle of pills.
Powell was eventually located in Poughkeepsie, New York, four and a half to five hours away. Based on the evidence and the location where she was picked up, police concluded that Powell had no intention of going back to take care of her children. Whether Powell had been living in these appalling conditions before to her purported breakdown or if her apartment descended into squalor after her departure is unknown. When her alleged nastiness was discovered, police were called to the house to perform a welfare check.
I knocked on the door when I got there and talked to an 11-year-old girl, Webster said. The smell of cat pee, decaying food, and feces assaulted me as soon as [the youngster] opened the door. She said, “No,” when I asked if her parents were present. [The youngster] stated that she had no idea where her mother was, when she had left, or when she would return.
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According to Webster, the children were unable to call anybody because they didn t have a working cellphone. He observed them eating moldy food while at the residence, per the report. Three of the children, according to Powell, have autism. It s unclear where their father is or if he s involved with the case.
I had difficulty standing in the bedroom for longer than a few seconds because of this smell, Webster said. The children, however, entered this bedroom without issue. I believed the children had become nose blind to the awful stench of the bedroom.
Powell has been charged with four counts of risk of injury to a child and is being held in lieu of a $250,000 surety bond.
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